Onboard your Development Agent

Complete a one-time setup to start using your agent. On the left navigation of Raiser's Edge NXT:

  1. Go to Portfolio, Development Agent.

  2. In the Complete the hiring process section, select onboarding tasks.

  3. First, set display names.

Note: The Get Started button becomes active after all required onboarding steps are complete, including email forwarding testing.

Set display names

Name your Development Agent

Your agent's name appears in messages sent to your constituents. A good name feels approachable and aligned with your organization's voice. You can change this name at any time. For full guidance, see Name Your Development Agent: Build Trust and Transparency

Name your organization

Your agent will refer to your organization by the name that you specify in this field.

Set up your agent's email

Your agent needs an email address and configuration to send email messages from your organization's domain so that emails look legitimate and reach your constituents without being flagged as spam.

Complete the configuration steps outlined in Configure your agent's email.

Warning: Once created, you cannot change the email address. Use your organization’s domain to reassure recipients that messages come from a trusted source.

Choose your brand voice

Help the agent sound like your organization by defining your communication style.

Conciseness

Choose a style for email content:

  • Concise – Short and to the point. For example: "Thank you for supporting our mission. Your generosity makes a difference every day."

  • Neutral – Balanced and professional. For example: "We appreciate your continued support. Your contributions help us achieve our goals and serve our community."

  • Verbose – Detailed and expressive. For example: "Your commitment to our mission is truly inspiring. With your support, we’re able to expand programs, reach more people, and create lasting impact in the community."

Brand Voice Text

Your agent can’t browse the web or pull in outside information such as from your website. It learns everything about your organization and how you communicate from what you share here. Teach your agent your organization’s communication style by entering previous or sample text. Each entry trains your agent to reflect your organization’s preferred voice and language when communicating with constituents. Over time, the agent learns to recall and apply this style consistently in its responses.

Give it details like who you serve, your mission, and any other context that helps it sound authentic and effective, including:

  • Recent examples of donor appeals or newsletters

  • Information from your website, such as:

    • Event pages or registration forms

    • Recognition programs or giving societies for mid-level donors

    • Corporate matching details

  1. Select + New entry.

  2. Enter or paste content into the field.

  3. Select Done.

  4. Select Save.

Entries display in the list from newest to oldest.

To remove content, select the delete icon next to the entry.

Manage data mapping

Accurate mapping ensures that every interaction the agent captures aligns with your organization’s reporting standards. This helps maintain clean data, support compliance, and make it easier to analyze engagement and fundraising results later.

For full guidance, see Manage Data Mappings.

Actions

Select or create action types to track donor engagement. Map each outreach type to the corresponding action category in Raiser's Edge NXT:

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Select a Completed action status for the agent should use when actions are complete.

Preferred salutation

Salutations determine how the name appears as a greeting in an email or SMS message. By default, the agent uses the primary salutation as defined in each constituent record.

Optionally select a salutation for the agent to use when addressing constituents.

Consent

Select or create a solicit code to capture consent preferences for agent communications. This ensures compliance with your organization's policies and donor preferences.

Grant access to your team

You can control who in your organization can review content generated by the agent and manage escalated conversations. When you add the names here, the correct role is automatically assigned to them.

Note: By default, all supervisor users have access to the agent. While you can add people in this onboarding screen, you cannot remove them.

  1. During onboarding, select Grant access to your team.

  2. In the field, select names of the individuals who should have access. The correct roles and permissions are assigned automatically.

  3. Select Save.

You can assign management permissions to more colleagues at any time. See Development Agent Roles, Tasks, and Permissions.

Engagement types

Choose the types of outreach that you want your agent to provide, whether that's to start a conversation, strengthen a relationship, or inspire action. After the automatic introduction message, which is always sent and cannot be disabled, the agent uses the engagement types you enable — along with each constituent’s details — to determine the appropriate next step. See Development Agent Engagement Types.

Configure SMS

You can optionally configure SMS so you can send SMS messages in addition to email. Note that before submitting your configuration, you must publish required language in your privacy policy and terms and conditions.

 

Select Save to apply your settings or Cancel to discard changes.

Final steps

Select Get started to begin provisioning your environment. This process can take between 20 seconds to 5 minutes, on average.

Note: The Get started button is not available until all required onboarding steps are complete, including email forwarding.

Onboarding begins with a small group so you can review messages and provide feedback. As constituents opt out or are reassigned, the agent automatically brings new prospects into the workflow.

Ensure transparency by adding a statement about automated fundraising to your website and listing your Development Agent alongside your staff to build donor trust.